Students of Oxford High School in Michigan fled to a house across the street where Kimberly Katsock-Gibbs held dozens of them as a gunman stalked their classrooms on Tuesday, she told NBC News.
I came out of the house to see what was going on, and I heard the gunshots, Katsock-Gibbs said. I have seen all of these kids, like three per window, trying to get out of these windows. It was horrible. It was like, it was surreal. It was — I'm looking at the windows right now and I still don't know how these kids were on top of each other pouring out of them. She said they're so small.
She told the students to get in the house as they started up her driveway. She said her son was nearby causing her to panic.
The kids crowded the house as Katsock-Gibbs, 53, tried to get through to the police without success. More started fleeing from the side of the school, and Katsock-Gibbs' husband blocked traffic so they could run into their home, she said.
They were terrified. She said they were crying, they were hugging each other.
One student told her her teacher had put a new lock on the classroom door the day before the shooting.
Another student told her that he hid in a bathroom stall, and when he heard the gun cock he jumped onto the toilet seat. When he left the stall, he said he found bodies on the floor, according to Katsock-Gibbs.
She said these kids are traumatized for life.
When the shooter was apprehended, her husband loaded his truck with students and delivering them back to their frantic parents, Katsock-Gibbs said.
Hana St. Juliana, 14; Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Tate Myre, 16; and Justin Shilling, 17 were killed in the shooting. Seven others, including a teacher, were seriously wounded.
The shooting happened just before 1 p.m. More than a hundred 911 calls came in to dispatch, according to authorities.
The suspected shooter, a 15-year-old student, fired at least a dozen shots before he was taken into custody.
The handgun believed to have been used was recovered. Sheriff Michael Bouchard said investigators believe the suspect s father bought the 9 mm Sig Sauer handgun on Friday.